University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1979 An evaluative study of a unit based on the Nazi Holocaust : implications for the design of interdisciplinary curricula. Roselle Chartock University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Chartock, Roselle, "An evaluative study of a unit based on the Nazi Holocaust : implications for the design of interdisciplinary curricula." (1979). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 3482. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/3482 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF A UNIT BASED ON THE NAZI HOLOCAUST: IMPLI CATIONS FOR THE DESIGN OF INTERDISCIPLINARY CURRICULA A Dissertation Presented By ROSELLE KLINE CHARTOCK Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION September, 1979 School of Education Roselle Kline Chartock 1979 All Rights Reserved ii AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF A UNIT BASED ON THE NAZI HOLOCAUST: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DESIGN OF INTERDISCIPLINARY CURRICULA A Dissertation Presented By ROSELLE KLINE CHARTOCK Approved as to style and content by: /Judithe Spe&del, Chairperson of Committee Michael Greenebaum, Member vi Sheldon Goldman, Member Mario Fantini, School of Education iii DEDICATION To Alan, my constant source of encouragement and love. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe special thanks to Professor Judithe Speidel. Her creativ- ity and critical insights guided me and helped to shape this disser- tation. It is not possible to think about these last five years without also remembering her encouraging words and gestures. I am also grateful to Professor Michael Greenebaum for the in- tellectual stimulus which provided me with a desire to strive for excellence. Professor Sheldon Goldman, political scientist, has served as a source of inspiration also, and I am grateful to him for his support and constant interest in this project. The Berkshire Hills Regional School District School Committee granted me a sabbatical from my teaching duties for the school year 1977-78 and, in so doing, enabled me to carry on my research for this evaluative study. I thank them for making the time available to me. The Anti -Defamation League of B'nai B'rith was kind enough to lend moral and financial support. Sally Powell, a graduate student at the University of Massachu- setts, was an invaluable consultant in the area of statistics. Her skills and understanding helped me gain access to the language of the computer and statistical analyses. And for her patient attention to detail I want to praise the skilled typist of this manuscript and the several drafts that pre- ceded it. Marion Grossetti has performed a mighty task. Last, but never least my family, husband and children, deserve special recognition. It is not possible to express adequately the v Joy and richness that Alan, Jonas, and Sarah provided throughout this project. Not only am I grateful for the help and support of the people mentioned earlier, but also I want to express thanks to friends, colleagues, and others who in a number of ways transmitted concern for my work and an interest in the goals of education expressed herein. vi ABSTRACT An Evaluative Study of a Unit Based on the Nazi Holocaust: triplications for the Design of Interdisciplinary Curricula (September 1979) Roselle Kline Chartock, B.S., Skidmore College M.A., Hunter College, Ed.D. , University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Judithe Speidel The secondary schools responsible for educating our future prob- lem solvers do not, for the most part, offer courses that facilitate interdisciplinary thinking. Perhaps this situation exists because most high school curricula are structured departmentally with subjects organized into separate disciplines. Consequently, students have little or no opportunity for learning about relationships among the various components of these separate subject areas or for learning how to synthesize methods and ideas from various disciplines in order to solve problems. This study deals with a unit based on the Nazi Holocaust, an example of an interdisciplinary curriculum that utilizes a convergence approach. Through the use of evaluative instruments the researcher tried to determine what changes in students' learning and attitudes occurred as a result of the unit and to describe what teaching approaches were used. The instruments were designed to help answer four research questions: l) What are students learning as a result of exposure to an interdisciplinary curriculum? 2) Can the teaching of an interdisciplinary unit help students apply interdiscip- linary concepts and problem-solving approaches to historical and con- temporary issues as well as to their own lives? 3) What changes in vii — attitude results? U) What are the characteristics and methodologies Of those teachers who are implementing the unit? The pre- and post-tests consisted of two attitude scales, one measuring anti-Semitic attitudes, the other measuring anti-democratic attitudes, and four knowledge or essay questions designed to measure the students' ability to integrate ideas from several perspectives in order to explain and resolve historical and contemporary problems. The tests were given to l6U students in an experimental group that received the Holocaust treatment and to 78 students in a population which did not receive instruction related to the unit. Four teachers were involved in the instruction of the unit and in the administration of the tests to the experimental group. They were interviewed both before and after the implementation of the seven-week unit on their teaching objectives, backgrounds and atti- tudes, and methodologies. Students in the experimental group demonstrated a gain in mean scores on all four knowledge questions from pre- to post-test. This group showed a significantly greater gain (at the .01 level) than did the control group on the essay question dealing with the Holocaust as approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. An F-test to determine the degree of variance between the two groups on the pre-test showed the two groups —experimental and control not to be significantly different in attitude on both scales. The dif- ference between the two groups on the post-test attitudes toward Jews, however, was shown to be significant at the .01 level, indicating a re- duction in anti-Semitic attitudes on the part of the experimental group. viii On the anti-democratic attitudes scale no significant increase or de- crease in scores occurred from pre- to post-test. I„ reference to the effects of intervening variables on attitude gain, an F-test shoved that when sex was entered alone and looked at for its affect on more positive attitudes tovard Jevs . there vas a significant difference be- tveen males and females in the experimental group, females shoving a greater increase in tolerance. Above average students (based on social studies achievement tests and grade point averages) vithin only the experimental group demon- strated a significantly greater increase in knovledge than the average students, vhereas the average group decreased significantly on the anti Semitism scale. The information gained from this study can be useful to teachers and/or administrators in restructuring curricula so that more attempts to integrate the disciplines can be stimulated, thereby providing stu- dents with more opportunities to better understand and possibly solve a wide range of problems by using the convergence approach. Specializi tion is necessary if we are to push forward the frontiers of knowledge but most modern social problems cut across traditional disciplines. Causes, effects, and solutions are to be discovered only through the probing and synthesis of a number of academic specialties. The chal- lenge now lies in making the collaboration between traditional program- ming and interdisciplinary studies more systematic and widespread. ix . TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT . LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS. Chapter I INTRODUCTION ****••••• I Statement of the Problem 1 Significance and .***’* Scope of the Study. £ Definitions £ Interdisciplinary Defined * Interdisciplinary Curriculum With a Problem-' orientation Approach: The Holocaust Unit . 15 Why the Problem-orientation Approach is the Focus of this Study 2h How the Four Research Questions can Lead to Data about the Effects of the Holocaust Unit on Students . Limitations of the Study ’ ’ 30 Organization of the Study * 31 II. A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE RELATED TO INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES 31* Philosophical and Psychological Studies 3I* Practical Studies 1*7 Holocaust-related Studies with an Interdisciplinary Problem-orientation .... 57 Ongoing Programs Described in the Literature: Inter- and Intradepartmental in Nature. ... 60 III. DESCRIPTION OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY UNIT ON THE HOLOCAUST: SOCIETY ON TRIAL. 72 Topical Outline of the Ideas Taken up in the Unit, "Society on Trial: A Study of the Nazi Holocaust" 80 Sections of the Teacher's Guide 86 Introduction to the Guide and Text 89 Teaching the Holocaust 93 Moral Education and the Holocaust Unit 93 An Example of